The Department of Energy reports that every year the average traditional home wastes up to 40% of the energy used for heating and cooling as heat is transferred through poorly insulated or un-insulated walls forming the exterior shell of the house, as well as air moving through gaps, penetrations, and cracks.
To provide proper insulation in modern construction of new buildings or as retrofit, spray polyurethane foam is increasingly used to the extent that it has become an industry standard for insulation, since the spray foam is able to fill in cracks and crevices and polyurethane has the highest resistance to heat transfer, called R-value, per thickness of any common insulating product.
Unfortunately, when applying the polyurethane spray foam, wall surface sections—and stud faces—that are not intended for being insulated with the polyurethane spray foam, get covered with over-spray. Traditionally, these surfaces are cleaned by scraping off the over-spray, either by hand or using power tools, resulting in a labour intensive and time consuming process. Alternatively, masking tape and/or protective plastic sheets are used to cover these wall sections and/or stud faces prior to the application of the polyurethane spray foam, resulting in a labour intensive and time consuming process and substantial cost for the masking tape and/or the plastic sheets.
It is desirable to provide a method for masking wall sections and stud faces prior to the application of spray foam insulation that is simple and fast.
It is also desirable to provide a device for masking wall sections and stud faces prior to the application of spray foam insulation that is cost effective and enables a simple and fast masking process.